In southwest Russia, just west of the Volga River, lies an ordinary-looking town with an extraordinary claim to world attention. Shikhany is the presumed birthplace of the military nerve agent Novichok, used in the 2018 poisoning of ex-Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in the United Kingdom.
No longer a secret location, Shikhany’s several thousand residents can now publicly discuss Novichok’s past. Current Time’s Unknown Russia traveled to Shikhany to hear their stories.